Chapter 697: Chapter 697

Mira had a decent idea of the situation now, but there was one thing still bothering her, so she asked, “How come he found out about the Oracle in the first place?”

As far as she could tell, the assassins did not have any leads as to the Oracle’s whereabouts, some even doubted she existed in the first place. In short, she was perfectly hidden.

But Alma had claimed that August did know about her.

Everything Mira had heard indicated an untraceable method. A fallen strand of hair was enough to activate that power, and no one could plan against it without knowing of it beforehand. And yet, there had been assassins searching for the Oracle.

Mira wanted to know if there had been a leak of information somewhere, or how they had found out in the first place.

“You could probably think of it like a secondary effect… And I mean, it makes sense that such a powerful ability also has its downsides.” Alma began replying to Mira’s question, hydrating her throat with some tea before explaining what those downsides were.

The Oracle’s power was to read the target’s thoughts, see what they were doing and what they were about to do, all in great detail.

That involved delving deep into one’s thoughts, which would trigger a subconscious reaction from the target, who would also sense they were being observed and with what intentions.

“That’s true, we ran a few tests before to know how strong the effect was, and it was a really weird feeling.”

By now, the Oracle had used her powers on August more than a hundred times, so he should also be quite aware of what was happening. So it made sense that he and those around him decided to try getting rid of the Oracle.

“I see…so the target of this Oracle of yours figured out what was going on. Then why do you need me to guard her now? If you know all this much, then I’m sure you’ve already given her plenty of security.”

Alma had chosen to use the Oracle’s powers to close down the underground trading routes of Ira Muerte, despite the fact that they would learn about the Oracle in return. That was how important it was to shut them down.

They had already done a lot to keep the Oracle’s existence and her location secret, but the sensible choice was to also have tight security around her, and Mira knew that Alma was smart enough to be aware of that. Which was why she wondered why she had to step in to guard the Oracle now.

“Well, I mean… Yes, she is being guarded at the moment, but…”

As soon as Mira asked that, Alma began to stutter a little, looking around awkwardly.

She confirmed that the Oracle had been heavily guarded from the start, maybe even by one of the Twelve Apostles, considering how important the Oracle was. That would mean there was no reason for Mira to take over. Except that Alma did not sound too convinced about their current arrangement.

“Exactly what are you trying to say? Be a bit more clear.”

Mira urged Alma to explain things properly, while Alma struggled to find the right words, as she would open her mouth a bit and then fall silent right away time and time again.

Just as Mira was starting to get annoyed, Esmeralda let out a deep sigh.

“Let me explain then.”

Seeing that things were going nowhere, Esmeralda felt like she had no choice but to step in, even if she also looked a bit hesitant to talk about it. Still, there was a need to explain why Mira’s help was needed, even if they had enough guards.

“You see, her current bodyguard is Noin.”

That was how Esmeralda began her explanation, but hearing that name only made Mira question things even more.

“What, then you can’t ask for a better bodyguard, can you?”

Noin the White Vault, one of the Twelve Apostles. He was a paladin just like Solomon, but he went on the proper and usual path of paladins, unlike Solomon who came up with his own way to fight.

He poured all his efforts into defense, and if he went all out, he could fend off even Isenfald’s Dragon Breath.

There had been a time when Danbulf and Noin fought a duel, which lasted for many hours without an end in sight, leading to it ending as a draw. With Isenfald’s attacks neutralized, all Danbulf could do was to use his army to stop Noin from moving. And in return, Noin was too busy fending off the army of summons and could not take a single step closer to Danbulf.

In the end, that stalemate was never broken, and their duel ended in a draw.

In short, no matter what type of attack came, or how many assassins made their way in, they would never be able to go through Noin to reach the Oracle, keeping her completely safe.

“I can’t see a world where I’d be of any use if that’s the case.”

Mira still could not comprehend why she was asked to help with that. Just what was the issue? If anything, Noin was far better qualified than her, so she just glared at Esmeralda wondering if they were just messing with her.

“I mean…at one point yes, that would’ve been true, but things have changed.”

Esmeralda looked away as she stumbled on her own words. But she understood that Mira would just keep demanding to know more, so she took a deep breath before trying to be more clear.

“You see…she…the Oracle is still a young girl…and umm…she’s become afraid of men…like a phobia… That’s why she becomes restless if Noin is near her, or even just in the same room… Now he can only stand watch outside of her room, but that means…you know…”

Esmeralda looked really troubled about having to say that, but at least that explained why Noin was no longer the ideal bodyguard choice, if anything were to happen, he would not be able to help to the best of his ability.

Meanwhile, Mira had more questions now. The way Esmeralda said it made it sound like the Oracle had not always had that phobia, and something had caused it to manifest.

There was a chance it was something Noin had caused, after all, he was a well known skirt chaser. But he also respected women, and would never intentionally do something to upset them.

On top of that, he really nailed the look of a paladin, so even if the Oracle fell in love with him, that should not be any reason for her to become afraid of men as a result.

“Hmm…a phobia towards men, huh… And how did that even happen?”

Mira was straightforward, as she wanted to know why that had happened so suddenly. Her curiosity was justified, as gaining a phobia so strong that it impeded the presence of a bodyguard was something strange.

But Esmeralda did not seem too thrilled to talk about it, and Alma continued to look away awkwardly.

Mira began to guess that it had been some really horrible experience, and decided she would tell them they did not have to say anything if they did not want to. But before she could say anything, Esmeralda took another deep breath and began talking.

“It was actually because of August…”

She once again spoke with constant pauses, and the story she told stunned even Mira.

When August realized that the Oracle’s abilities allowed her to see everything he was doing and planning, he decided to act in the worst way possible. Esmeralda’s face reddened as she related that, an endless onslaught of things children should never know about.

Basically, August had started engaging in the most perverse of fetishes with all sorts of women, all so the Oracle would also end up seeing that.

As Esmeralda explained, the Oracle was still of the tender and impressionable age of fourteen years old, so it was almost expected for such a young girl to gain a phobia after seeing all the dirty perversions carried out by August.

But if they stopped observing August, they would not know what was happening with Ira Muerte, and he would be able to go back to working as usual. For more chapters visıt N()velFire.net

All they could do for the Oracle’s sake was to reduce the frequency with which she used her powers. That way, at least they could keep track of the bigger schemes within the organization, even if they lost the ability of gaining more granular information.

That was the countermeasure August had taken as soon as he felt the Oracle was a girl. It was a rather ridiculous strategy, but he kept going when he noticed it had an effect. It was hard to tell whether he was doing it purely to fight back or if that was his true nature, but regardless, it was something Mira did not appreciate in the least.